 A title of our sermon this morning is the glory of a true church, glory of a true church. And if you've been with us before, many of you have, you know that we preach expository. We go verse by verse by verse through books of the Bible. A lot of reasons for why we do that, but we want to understand what God's word says to us. You don't care what I have to say, right? My opinions don't mean anything. I want to know what the word of God has to say so that we can know it and we can live by it. We want to be blessed by it. I want the Lord to work in us through it and sanctify us through it. So we want to hear from the word of God. Today, in speaking of this topic, the glory of a true church, I thought we would do something a little bit different and in a sense to help us understand maybe from a different perspective of what the glory of a true church is all about. Now there's several different ways that you could approach this subject. You could talk about a marks of a true church. You could talk about what a true church does offset against maybe what a false church does or what a bad church does and there is plenty, plenty in Scripture to address those issues, right? I thought maybe this morning that in approaching this subject that I might tell you a story. I want to tell you a story from the Bible. The Bible has the most glorious story of all, the most glorious truths of any truth. All truth comes from God and God has a glorious story to tell and that has impact for you and I. We need to understand this story and one of the things that I'm just persistently, consistently amazed by is how this story so beautifully harmonizes throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. And so I want you to get a glimpse of that today as we walk through some passages of Scripture. Now hopefully if you've come today, you've got your Bible. If you don't have a Bible, we've got Bibles out there for you. We can get you one. But if you've got your Bible in your lap, we want to turn to several passages of Scripture and I want to put some of these things together for us as we walk through the text of the Bible. So I want you to follow along. You need to use your thinking caps, right? We want to be able to think through what God is doing here and put together the story of God's redemption. In Scripture, God created everything. God created everything for His own glory and for His good pleasure. Now He did that. He created all things in six 24-hour days about 6,300 years ago. I'm going to say that again. It bears repeating. We'll talk about this more in a moment. He did that. He created all things in six literal 24-hour days about 6,300 years ago. In Genesis chapter one, turn there with me. Genesis chapter one verse one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Now out of nothing, out of nothing, God created the earth in the seas in verses nine and ten. If you look there, God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good. Now notice that He does that with His word. And God said, and out of nothing, by the power of God's word, He created the heavens and the earth. With a word, God commands the earth to bring forth plants and fruits and all matter of vegetation in verses 11 and 12. In verses 11 and 12, God saw that it was good. Out of nothing, out of nothing, God creates the lights and the firmament, the stars, the sun, the moon in verses 14 through 18. And God saw that it was good. He creates the fish of the sea. He creates the birds of the air in verses 20 and 21. And God saw that it was good. Out of the ground, He forms the beasts of the earth and every creeping thing in verses 24 and 25. And God saw that it was good. He created it all by speaking it into existence by the word of His power. And notice, and God said verse three, then God said verse six, then God said verse nine, verse 11, then God said verse 14, then God said, right? Verse 20, then God said, God says it and it's so. At that time, all that God created was very good, very good. Death did not exist. Disease did not exist. There was no corruption. There were no lawyers. There were no cats for that matter either. There were no violent forces wreaking havoc. Everything that God created was good. There were no evolutionary processes because nothing died. Everything that God created was fit for survival. But the longer that we go, the more that we and scientists, quote unquote, understand our universe, the very foundations of the theory of evolution are dramatically crumbling. God created all things for His own glory and for His good pleasure. Now look with me at Genesis chapter one and look at verse 26. God creates the pinnacle of His creation, the crown of His creation. In verse 26, then God said, right, the word of God. God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And so God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. I want you to note a couple of things about this passage of scripture. Notice first here the use of personal language. God says, let us make man in our image. Now to this point, it's not merely that God said, bring forth this and bring forth that like He'd done before. Right? At this point in verse 26, God is relating to His creation. Let us make man and He's going to make man in His image according to His likeness. God doesn't relate Himself to the rest of creation in that same way, right? God relates Himself to man. I note secondly there that the personal language used is in the plural. It's let us make man in our image. And here, it's not let me make man in my image. He says, let us make man in our image. We're introduced here to the fact that God Himself is relational, that He's Trinitarian. In this plural use of pronouns, we see the first glimpse, so to speak, of the trinity and that God Himself is relational within Himself. One God in three persons. Now notice third, clearly here from the text, that God created man in His image, in His likeness. Flip the page and look at Genesis chapter five. Look at Genesis chapter five. And it's emphasized that man is created in the image of God. Chapter five verse one, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind in the day that they were created. And again, emphasizing the fact that man is created by God. Now the image of God, if you consider what the image of God means from these texts, right? It means that we were made to resemble God. Likeness, image, or synonyms mean basically the same thing. We were made to represent or to resemble God. It's not referring here to physical appearance, because the Bible clearly teaches that God is a spirit, that He's not a physical being, so it's not referring to His physical appearance. It's referring then, if you think about it, to our immaterial part. It's referring to that part of us that is immaterial. It's a likeness then that is spiritual. It's a likeness that is mental, social, relational. It's personal. It's a likeness that's emotional. That's self-conscious. That's communicative. And it's a likeness that is moral. It's a likeness that is moral. That's those aspects, thinking through this with me. It's those aspects that differentiate you and I from animals. It's those aspects in which we relate to God or are made in His image or are made in His likeness. Now note here, again, that only man is made in the image of God. Of all creation, think about it, only man is created to live forever. Therefore, man of all God's creation was of primary importance to the Godhead, of primary importance to the Trinity. Everything else was created for man, so to speak. Created to provide a world for man. Created to provide a universe for man that would display to be a stage on which the power of God, the wisdom of God, the goodness of God would be displayed. The creation, God's creation is to provoke in man worship of God. God's creation is to provoke man to relate to, to praise, to thank, to enjoy and to glorify God forever. After creation now and God's interaction or interrelationship with Adam, God commands Adam to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and to subdue it. God's crowning creation would rule over the rest of His creation. And if you think about that, God's glory then as Adam and Eve multiplied and filled the earth, God's glory reflected in man would also fill the earth. The knowledge of Him, the Bible says, would fill the earth as the waters cover the seas. Adam was insufficient for this task by himself. Ruling over the garden, ruling over creation, procreating and filling the earth, he needed a helper. And so God made a helper for him, a helper that was comparable to him. And Adam was joined to his wife Eve. Now Adam became the patriarchal head, the federal head of all creation, the federal head, the patriarchal head, the representative head of all people. And then God looked at everything that he had made and indeed God said it was very good, very good. If you think about Adam in the garden, right, Adam in the garden given the joy of having unfettered access to God, the joy of God's presence. In Genesis chapter three verse eight, it says that God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Adam could have been walking with him, right? God's presence with his people, God's presence in the garden. That's very good, isn't it? The privilege and blessing that Adam enjoyed in being able to commune with God was rooted and grounded in the character of God. For God to be able to commune with Adam, for Adam to be able to relate to and to commune with God, that relationship had to be rooted and grounded in the very character of God. I'll explain what we mean by that. In communicating his nature, right, in communicating his character to Adam, God instructs Adam to live in accord with God's commands. God's commands represent God's character. God does not, cannot, will not ever lie. And so what does he say? Don't lie. God will never cheat, will never steal. And so we're told not to cheat, not to steal. In order to have a relationship with God, Adam had to relate to God in accord with God's inviolable character. And God represented his character with his holy, just and good law. And he communicates that law to Adam. Adam, certainly think about it in the garden. We know of the one law, right? Either these trees don't eat of that tree, right? But in God communicating his law to Adam, certainly Adam was the love, the Lord, his God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. Certainly Adam was commanded to love Eve and love their descendants after him. He was commanded to do this. And the law in the garden, not represented by two tablets, but represented by two trees. Look at Genesis chapter two, verse 15, Genesis chapter two, beginning in verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man, Adam, by the way, is a word that means man, right? So he took Adam and he put, put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and to keep it. In verse 16, the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the Garden, you may freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now notice first, in this little passage of scripture here, this is an arrangement between God and Adam, isn't it? This is a covenant. This is a relationship that's being established here and the boundaries of the relationship are being set. Notice first in verses 15 to 17, who has responsibility for the covenant? Who's been given responsibility for the covenant? Adam has, right? Adam has. Man's relationship to God, man's relationship to God was given boundaries by covenants, by agreements. And we see that in verses 16 and 17. This is a covenant that theologians call covenant of works, covenant of works. Here, God promises Adam life for obedience and death for disobedience. It's pretty clear, right? This is extremely important to understand the sweeping scope of God's redemptive purposes in history. Here, he promises Adam life for obedience and death for disobedience. Obey me and you'll live, he says to Adam essentially disobey me and you'll die. Life and death were written on those two trees. Now, God's moral law, God's moral law commanded Adam essentially to partake of what is good for Adam, what is good for God. He's to partake of what is good and live. And through that partaking of what is good, Adam was to enjoy continued fellowship with God. But now God's moral law also prohibited Adam. It prohibited Adam from taking of what is evil, breaking his covenant with God, breaking his fellowship with God, and all of that under the penalty of death. Obey me and you live, disobey me and you'll die. This covenant, this covenant is necessary to a right relationship with God. God has said, you are to be holy as I am holy. You must be righteous. God has said that he has of pure eyes that need to even look on sin. Heaven is a perfect place. God himself is perfect. And unless you are perfect, unless I am perfect, we can't be in right relationship with God. It's a very foundational covenant that we all need to understand. You must be holy to be right with God. All of mankind, all of mankind, from Adam down through the ages to you and I, all of mankind is born under this covenant, under this relationship. Obey me and you will live, God says, disobey me and you will die. God's people would be marked off by this covenant. God's people would be given this covenant by God and expected to keep this covenant. Adam here, a free agent so to speak, a free creature at this point in time, has the ability and has the desire in his heart to obey this covenant. He wants this relationship with God and he has the heart and the ability to carry it out. Now think of it this way. The moral law is reflective of God's attributes, the very essence of who God is. So whenever he reveals himself to man, God always reveals himself in the presence of his own nature, his own law, his own attributes. His law always representing him. His law always reflecting his essential nature, his essential characteristics. God is holy and God is to be revered as holy. Obey the law, the Bible says, and enjoy life and peace and communion with God. Disobey the law, disobey the law and face death and condemnation. Cast off from God, cast away from God. Pretty sobering thought, isn't it? Why is it so sobering to us? Because none of us keep that covenant. None of us keep the law. We're all, the Bible says, confined under sin. We are, by nature, sinners fallen in Adam. The Bible says with David, right, in sin, my mother conceived me. You've seen a little baby pitch a temper tantrum, haven't you? Right from our births, we were born in sin. We've broken the covenant that God expects us to keep. But what happens here with Adam in the garden? What happens with Adam in the, in even the garden? A bomb goes off, right? A nuclear weapon goes off in the garden here. The covenant that God made with Adam is broken and Adam falls. Look at Genesis chapter three and look at verse one. Genesis chapter three, verse one. Now the serpent here was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said that you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He's how deceptive the serpent is, right? He undermines, twists the infallible word of God. Verse two, and the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it. Did God, did God command that? No, even Eve, in her deception undermining the word of God. You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. The serpent said to the woman, now overtly challenging the word of God. The serpent said to the woman, verse four, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. The serpent deceives Eve here in Genesis chapter three. First by corrupting the word of God and then by overtly undermining the word of God, challenging the word of God. What does Eve do? Right? Eve assumes autonomy for herself. Once she's subject to God, the other thing Eve is subject to her husband, but she assumes autonomy to herself and eats what God has clearly forbidden. Now Adam, Adam is the one responsible for the covenant and Adam being responsible for the covenant fails in his covenant responsibility as head of the human race. He fails in his covenant responsibility as Eve's husband and he eats the fruit also both committing a death penalty offense that despite God's immeasurable grace, right? Think about the grace of God in all this that God would condescend to have that kind of communion with his creation. God who is perfect, God who is holy, right? And all this in God's infinite goodness, the image of God in man is defaced and defaced permanently. We can still see the wreckage of that corruption, can't we today? We see rebellion, anger, hate, murder, selfishness, thanklessness. You know Paul says in Romans that he then don't like to retain God in their knowledge. How shameful is it for you and I that we would go one minute without acknowledging God? And yet you and I would both have to confess, wouldn't we, that we've gone longer than a minute often repeatedly and without remorse? How shameful selfishness, wars, famine, poverty, abortion, homosexuality, adultery, hell. The created order completely turned on its ear by the fall of Adam in the garden, turned upside down. Adam and Eve after the fall were no longer friends of God. There was enmity between them, the Bible says. They became enemies of God by their wicked works. Rather than enjoy the access that they once had to God, the fellowship they had with God, the communion they once had with God, who created them, Adam and Eve were driven from the garden. They were cast out. They were cut off from God in that sense. What's worse, Adam being the federal head of all humanity, the father of all people, so to speak, Adam's sin infected and polluted and corrupted all of his offspring. All of us, you and I, we've all been born in Adam. It's where our sin nature comes from. We're not sinners because we're sin. We sin. We sin because we are sinners. Do you see the difference? Our nature is polluted. Our nature is corrupted and so we sin. Jeffrey Johnson put it this way. The deadly poison was not contained in the forbidden fruit but rather originated in the heart that took hold of it. Once the father of humanity fell, all of humanity fell in him and the poison of spiritual death is passed on. That's Romans chapter five, Romans chapter six. Now consider with me Adam's relationship then to God's law. The law of God, which once pointed to life for Adam, now brought death and condemnation and brought death and condemnation to all. The children of God are now the children of the devil. Sons of God are now sons of disobedience. The kingdom that God had created and called very good now became a kingdom of darkness under the sway of the wicked one. The effects of the fall are devastating, absolutely devastating. You meditate for a while on the effects of the fall. It is a devastating nuclear explosion that has affected us down through the ages to this day. Rather than desiring holiness, rather than desiring intimate communion with God who created him, man now desires his sin. And you know that to be true because that's your desire, that's my desire. By our nature, man fallen desires sin. He desires to live life for himself, not for God. The sin and rebellion that is killing him is the very sin and rebellion that he affectionately embraces, that he affectionately pursues. And he can't free himself. He can't free himself. You and I can't free ourselves. In fact, we have to confess we're blinded by most of the effects of sin on our own heart and soul. Our hearts, the Bible says, are deceptive, deceitfully wicked above all things. As a result in all this, all humanity in Adam has been cut off and has been cast out. And Satan now rules where Adam once ruled. So what's God's response to Adam's transgression? What does God do with respect to all this? God who is holy, God who is just, God who always keeps his word, he executes the terms of his covenant. God who is too holy to look upon sin swings the sword of divine retribution. And in his righteous judgment, all mankind is now cursed in Adam. Look at Genesis chapter three and drop down to verse nine. Then the Lord God called to Adam and he said to him, where are you? So Adam said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded to you that you should not eat? And the man said, the woman, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate. Blame shifter. The Lord God said to the woman, verse 13, what is this you've done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, here is divine retribution, God's justice being executed. He said to the serpent, because you've done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field on your belly you shall go. You shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head. You shall bruise his heel to the woman. He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband. He shall rule over you. And Adam, he said, verse 17, because you've heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it, cursed, Adam, is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat of the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you shall return. God curses the serpent, curses the woman, curses Adam, curses all mankind, curses the earth as a result of the fall. Now it's in the very nature, we think about the law, right, representing the character of God, the heart of God, the nature of God, the essence of God represented by his law, but in the character, in the essence, in the nature of God, it's in his essential nature to be merciful. It's in his essential nature to be good, to be kind, to be gracious. The Bible teaches that God is merciful of great kindness and that God relents from doing harm. I want you to notice even in the midst of his judgment and condemnation, in the midst of the darkness, so to speak, in the very heart of the curse, God makes provision for hope through a promise. Look at verse 15. He tells the serpent in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He, the seed of the woman, shall bruise, or he, the serpent, shall bruise your head, I'm sorry, the seed of the woman, shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel. Do you see that? Her seed shall bruise your head, you serpent, you shall bruise his heel. The seed of the woman, here in the promise of the gospel, Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, the seed of the woman would one day crush the head of the serpent. Where there is darkness and despair, the seed of the woman comes and there's light and there's hope. And this is none other, the seed of the woman is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice with me now, God announces good news for man with the very same words in which he announces judgment for the serpent, gospel hope coming out of judgment, right? The victory of the seed was announced with the defeat of the serpent. He shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel. Where Adam failed, this second Adam, this second seed, so to speak, would prevail. Satan overcame the first Adam, the second Adam would overcome Satan. Now as soon as, think about the graciousness of God, the goodness of God, right? As soon as sin revealed the essential necessity of a savior, God steps in with gospel hope provided through a promise. That's very important for us to understand. This promise, this promise has much more to do with the Lord Jesus Christ than it does with man. Think about this with me. Before time began, God in the eternal councils of his own will had purposed to provide a gift for his son, a gift that expressed his love for the second person of the Trinity, a gift for his son. That gift would be an expression of love within the Godhead and would provide for the son a bride, a people. That bride being a redeemed people, his own purchased possession, would be a people that would love him, praise him, worship him, exalt him, adore him, and serve him forever. That's the people that God has redeemed for the son. That's the Father's love gift to God the Son and that is forever and ever. Turn with me to Titus chapter one, Titus chapter one. I want to show this to you from scripture. It doesn't matter what I think, right? It matters what the Bible says. The Bible says that you can take it to the bank. It's true. Titus chapter one, God the Father had purposed in eternity past to provide a love gift for his son, a bride of redeemed people that would worship him and praise him and exalt him and adore him and serve him forever. Titus chapter one, look at verse one. Here Paul says, Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness. In hope of eternal life, there's the hope, right? In hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised when? Before time began. When did time begin? It began at creation when God created the heavens and the earth, right? Now notice the gospel hope here. The promise is given before time began. God's redemptive purposes, God's saving intentions, his plan to save a people from their sin was in place and determined and decreed before time began. Now in other words, all that before creation, before the beginning of the created order, before the first day of creation, God had already made provision for this promise. That's an awesome thought, isn't it? God planned to choose, there it says in verse one, his elect and he would grant them faith. He would provide for their acknowledgement of the truth, verse one. He would provide for them godliness from that verse one and he would give them verse two, eternal life in his son. Now think about this with me in Titus chapter one. To whom did God make that promise? This is before creation, right? We weren't created, man wasn't created until the sixth day. So who was there in the eternal counsels of God before time began that God would have made this promise too? The son. That's right, God the son. Look with me at 2 Timothy chapter one. Flip back a couple of pages. This is a couple of pages, one page maybe. 2 Timothy chapter one. This promise made to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at 2 Timothy chapter one beginning in verse eight. Paul says to Timothy here, therefore, verse eight, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. Verse nine, God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose. Do you see that? According to his own grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus, when? Before time began. Do you see that? Verse 10, but he has now revealed by the peering of our savior, savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. This promise was given to us in Christ before time began. God made that promise to Christ. We were redeemed in Christ before time began. Look with me at 1 Peter. A few pages to the right. 1 Peter chapter one. 1 Peter chapter one, and we're going to apply these truths in a moment. So you think through this and you put these pieces of the puzzle together and you see behind the curtain as it were at God's redemptive purposes and plans, all of this should have impact on the way that we think and it should have impact on the way that we live. 1 Peter chapter one, look down at verse 19. 1 Peter chapter one, verse 19. Peter says you were redeemed. You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He Christ indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. And what he's saying here is that Jesus Christ, who was manifest or who appeared in these last days, he appeared to go to the cross. He appeared to die for sinners. He appeared to save sinners, to be resurrected from the dead. That Jesus Christ was foreordained or planned to enter into that from before the foundation of the world or before creation. Before those six days of creation ever started, ever began, before man was ever created, God planned in the eternal councils of his will to redeem a fallen humanity to worship his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now think with me, in the councils of God, before he ever created the worlds, God made a promise to redeem some of fallen humanity as a love gift to the Son. He would save them from their sinful condition in order to bring them to glory. He would save them from certain death under his holy law and the demands of the covenant that he made. And in eternity past, he planned with the Son the incarnation, the virgin birth, the necessity of an acceptable sacrifice for sin, and he planned the resurrection with the Spirit of God, John 16, right? He planned with the Spirit of God to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and of judgment. He provided for the need of new birth that man's depravity would necessitate. They would convey them from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of his love. And all of that was manifested, Peter says, in these last days at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, for you, for me. Second Thessalonians chapter two, turn there with me. Second Thessalonians chapter two, I want to be able to meditate on these things and put these things together in your heart and mind, thinking on them. One of the problems with us today, right, is we don't think deeply. So many people today, I personally was not a reader until the Lord saved me. When the Lord saved me, I wanted to read. I wanted to learn. But we don't think deeply. Many of us sit in a vegetative state in front of the TV. So we don't think about these things. But theology is to be meditated on. God's word to be meditated on, to think on, to understand. It has impact and import for our lives. Second Thessalonians chapter two, and drop down to verse 13. Paul says here, verse 13, we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God, from the beginning, chose you for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth. All this took place in God's decree before time began, right? When does Revelation say that those who are saved, those who've put their faith and trust in Christ, when does Revelation say that their names are written in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world? If you think about that, there was a hymn back in the 50s. If it's new, it's not necessarily true. 50s for a hymn is pretty new. There was a hymn, and the way that the hymn was worded says, if God is sitting in heaven and every time someone gets saved, he's writing their name book. So God's just sitting there busy writing names down in his book. It's like, what is that old saying? Every coin in the coffer rings up soul from purgatory springs. Nothing to do with that. That's bad theology. All the names of those whom God saved or written in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world, God decreed that all this would take place. Back in Genesis chapter three, God chose a people for his son as a love gift to the son, to worship the son, to praise the son, to serve the son. And although God had chosen a people for his son, that elect people are fallen in Adam. As a result of the fall, they are fallen in Adam and they're defiled by their sin. Those people that God intends to save are justly condemned by the law. The law is holy, just, and good. And they're condemned under a covenant that God had made with Adam called the covenant of works, obeying you live, disobeying you die. So these people have to be redeemed, right? God has to set in motion his plan to redeem this people, to buy them back from the penalty of their sin, which is death, to purchase them back from the due punishment of their sin, which is death, eternal separation from God, in hell, torment under the wrath of God. Essentially, God has to buy them back, so to speak, from his own wrath, save them from the wrath of God. When John the Baptist comes preaching in the gospel of John, John talks about those people coming to hear him preach fleeing what? The wrath of God, flee the wrath of God. The stark reality is that all of sin, all have fallen short of the glory of God. The perfect justice of God's law demands judgment and death. And listen, for you and I, you're sitting here today, God's law demands for you your death. God's law, you and I born under the law. You and I sit here today with God's law, a determined reality. And God's law says that you deserve hell. For those outside of Christ, the Bible says that you've been condemned already. You've been condemned already. And if you, so if you sit under the law of God, then the execution of God's sentence is the only thing that awaits you. The only thing that awaits you is hell. You're a death row inmate, so to speak, awaiting the green mile. The only hope for the redemption of God's people. The only hope that you have that I have is for the just demands of God's law to be met, to be met by someone who would stand in our place, someone who would represent us. We don't want to be represented by Adam anymore. Amen. There must have necessity be a second man to come into a fallen world and accomplish what the first man, Adam, was unable to accomplish. Now think about that with me. In order to fulfill the righteous requirements of God's law, that man would have to be perfect, wouldn't he? He's got to perfectly fulfill all the demands of God's law, perfectly. To establish perfect righteousness for the people of God, he has to take their place as their head, as their federal head, as their representative. In order to do that, the new Adam, so to speak, this perfect man would be required to satisfy the covenant of works, to satisfy the just demands of God's law, and would be required to take the penalty that all of those who have gone before and after have incurred by their failure to keep God's law. Does that make sense? In order to fulfill the demands of God's law, that penalty must be enacted. God does not sweep your sin under the rug. God does not turn a blind eye to your sin. He doesn't trifle with sin. There's those that will say, right, you're out witnessing here all the time, right? I sin, God forgives. I ask for forgiveness. That's what God does. God forgives me. No, that forgiveness comes at an impossibly high price. God doesn't trifle with sin. Your sin must be paid for. The hope that we have is not that the law has been done away with. The hope that we have is not that the law no longer applies. The hope that we have is that the law would be fulfilled, that the law would be satisfied. The covenant still applies to us, but sin has made it impossible, impossible for you and I to keep it. Jeffrey Johnson said again, sin did not free man of his responsibility. Sin only made it more difficult to achieve. Similarly, the promise of the gospel did not eliminate the demands of the covenant of works, but rather guaranteed that they would be fulfilled by a specific man. Our hope rests in the fact that the just demands of the law have been satisfied. They've been fulfilled. Out of judgment comes justification, right? Out of condemnation comes forgiveness, comes restoration with God. In the gospel, death gives way to life. Go back with me to Genesis chapter three and look at verse 15 again. Genesis chapter three verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, you serpent, and you shall bruise his heel. Because of the fall, the seed of the woman born under the law as sinners, the seed of the woman would be born under the law and they would face judgment and death. All those who would come after Adam and Eve would be born under the law as sinners and as such they would face judgment and death. Pointing to this was the physical death of Adam and all his posterity. If you look at Genesis five, look at verse five. Genesis chapter five, the end of verse five. Adam lived 930 years and he died. Look at verse eight. All the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. Look at verse 11. Enoch, he died. Look at verse 12. I'm sorry, 14. He died. Look at verse 17. And he died. Look at verse 20. And he died. Look at verse 27. And he died. Look at verse 31. And he died. Do you see that? It's a desperate circumstance, isn't it? A desperate circumstance. But in that God promised hope in Redeemer. What was it that Adam and Eve were to do to inherit this promise? What did Adam and Eve have to do to inherit the promise? They were to turn from their sin and trust God for it. They were to believe the promises of God. God is faithful to his promises, isn't he? He is faithful to his promises. Adam and Eve were to trust God for the promise. Trust God to inherit the promise. They're to put their faith in him. They were to entrust themselves to him for the coming Redeemer, the coming seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. They were to trust God. In Genesis chapter seven, as wickedness floods into the world as a result of the fall, the depravity of man reached such a high watermark that among the multitudes of the earth at that time, there were only eight people that follow the Lord in faith. And so what did God do for those eight people? In faith. They trusted God. They believed God, and it was credited to them for righteousness. God enclosed those eight people in an ark, preserving the promise of a coming seed. He flooded the earth, wiping away all the wicked with a tremendous flood. God said that the thoughts and intentions of man's heart were only evil continually. You know, so much happens along the way here. Time prevents us from talking about it all, but all the while God's intention and purpose is to provide for the coming promised seed and to point people to him for salvation by grace through faith. Look at Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 12. Again, God continues to do that. He continues to provide for a future seed and to point people to a future seed, point people to his deliverer, the Savior. And he continues to do that in Genesis 12 through a man of his own choosing, Abraham. Of all the people and families that lived on the earth, God determined that this man, this family, his offspring would be marked off to God. And once again, he was marked off to God by covenant. Look at Genesis chapter 12, verse one. Now the Lord said to Abraham, or Abraham, get out of your country from your family, from your father's house to a land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Emphasizing again, God's power and God's faithfulness to keep his promises. He chose an older couple past childbearing years, right? And he promised them a son in their old age that it seemed impossible to Adam and to Abraham and to Sarah seemed impossible to both of them. But the Bible says that Abraham believed God for the promise and it was accounted to him. His faith was accounted to him for righteousness. Where did the righteousness come from? It came from the promised seed. When the seed would come and fulfill the law, fulfilling all righteousness, that righteousness would apply to Abraham by Abraham's faith in that promise, faith in God's promises, faith in the promised seed. Look at Genesis chapter 15 and look at verse two. Genesis 15 verse two. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless in the air of my house is Eleazar of Damascus. Then Abram said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and said to Abram, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And Abram believed the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Then he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? And God enters into covenant with Abram. Like Adam, like Noah before him, Abraham lived by faith in a promised savior. Like Adam, like Noah before him, it would be Abraham's turn now to fulfill the demands of God's law. Look at Genesis 17. Genesis 17 and look at verse one. Again, God enters into covenant with Abraham. Verse one. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God. And what does Abram have to do? He has to walk before him and be blameless. Do you see? That's the same covenant of works. Obey me, you live, disobey me, you die. Walk before me, God says, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram. Abram meaning father, right? But your name shall be called Abraham, meaning father of many or father of a multitude. For I have made you the father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful. Now listen to the promises of God here. These are the promises of God. I have made you the father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you. Think about it. From Abram, you've got a land that God is going to promise to Abraham. You've got a people, many nations that will come from Abraham, many kings. You have rulers that are coming from Abraham, including one consummate ruler that will come in the seed, the form of the seed from a woman. What do you have there? You have a kingdom. God establishing again his kingdom now through covenant with Abraham. You have a land, you have seed, you have people, you have rulers. And he says here, there will be an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you, verse eight. Also I give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession and I will be their God. Now God said to Abraham in verse nine, I get this, as for you Abraham, you shall keep my covenant. You and your descendants after you throughout their generations, this covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you, every male child among you shall be circumcised. No longer God's covenant or not yet God's covenant cut into stone, but now the sign of God's covenant cut into flesh. You shall be circumcised, verse 11, in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male in your generations. He who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant and the uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. Now again, fact of the covenant that God makes with Abraham is not just a mark on Abraham's body or a mark on the bodies of his sons. It's just not simply in the flesh. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 10 with me. Deuteronomy chapter 10 and again we're putting together God's heart and mind, God's purposes and intentions in redeeming of people for his son. We're seeing this worked out again with God's people through covenant. Deuteronomy chapter 10 and here's what circumcision represented, just like Adam in the garden, those trees represented keeping of God's law. Moses in the wilderness with the children of Israel, those tablets represented keeping God's law, obviously. Here, what does circumcision represent? Look at verse 12, Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 12. And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command you today for your good. Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them and he chose their descendants after them. You above all peoples as it is this day, therefore God says in verse 16, circumcise the foreskin of your heart. You see that? Be stiff-necked no longer for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 30. Deuteronomy chapter 30. This making sense so far? Are you tracking with me? I'm going to try to bring it around to conclusion here in a minute. The covenant not seen in trees now, not cut on tablets of stone but cut in flesh. Deuteronomy chapter 30, look at verse 1. Now it shall come to pass when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you and you return to the Lord your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and all your children with all your heart and with all your soul that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will bring you, bring you, then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants in order that you may love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. Your circumcision given to Abraham originally didn't merely represent a separation of the people of God from their fleshly nature, but it also separated the people of God from the seed of the serpent. It separated them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God, separating them the holy so to speak from the unholy and again here a clear picture given of that in Deuteronomy chapter 10, Deuteronomy chapter 30. Circumcision meant more than just an outward mark or an outward cut. Circumcision was a picture of what God required inwardly of the heart. The heart of man needed to be cut. Do you see? The heart of man God demanded and circumcision demanded heart and soul devotion to God. It demanded perfect righteousness. Can you see all these laws, right? All the laws given. If the law of God points to that, the need for depraved man to be cut to the heart. The need for depraved man to have his heart changed. The need for depraved man, you and I, to have our hearts so reconstructed, replaced by God, such that you and I born in Adam by nature sinners such that you and I can love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength. That's what all of this points to. Do you see how foolish it is for anyone to think that they can clean themselves up to be right with God? Can you think with me, right? How foolish it is for anyone to think that I'm a pretty good person? And all I need to do, I just need to do better. I just need to do better. If I can do better, God's going to accept me. It's absurd. Everything about fallen man, God wants to replace, reconstruct. He wants to make of you a new creation. Doing better does not and will not mean salvation. You need to be remade. You need to be born again. The Lord Jesus Christ tells Nicodemus in John chapter three, unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God. You must be remade from the inside out. And all of this is pointing to the fact that apart from God's work in the heart of man, it is impossible by your good works to be right with him. No amount of law keeping will ever save you. There is nothing in you that is righteous apart from the work of God and his spirit. There's nothing about you that merits any favor with God. You are unlovely to God. You can't do it in your own power. You can't do it by your own works. It takes faith in God for God to transform you. Faith in his promises, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam strived to keep the covenant and he failed. Noah strived to keep the covenant and he failed. Abraham strived to keep the covenant and he failed. He strived to live according to all its circumcision entailed and he failed. Abraham, Adam, Noah found that it was impossible. Abraham believed the promises of God. And Abraham was declared righteous apart from works. When was Abraham declared righteous before circumcision or after circumcision? Before circumcision. He received an inward circumcision of his heart before he ever received an outward circumcision. So what was the ground then of Abraham's hope? The ground of Abraham's hope was the promised savior, the promised Messiah, the promised seed. God promised that Abraham's seed would be the people of God and that in his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. But Abraham understood there would come a promised son as a part of that line, as a part of that seed, a promised son who would establish finally an unconditional covenant of grace by fulfilling all the just requirements of God's law. Taking on himself, in himself, the penalty that the law demands for all those that would break it. Galatians chapter three, we don't have time to turn there, just listen. Verse eight, Paul says, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel to Abraham beforehand saying, in you Abraham, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. So then those who are of the faith are blessed with believing Abraham. Now God may have placed Abraham's direct descendants, the Israelites, under a covenant of works. But that was done so that the promised seed would be born under the law and so that the promised seed would fulfill perfectly all of the just demands of that law. He would become the savior of his people by keeping that law perfectly where all others had failed. Listen to Paul in Galatians chapter three beginning in verse 10, for as many as are of the works of law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed, listen, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, but that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident for the just the Bible says shall live by faith. Yet the law is not a faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Paul says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us. For it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree so that the blessing of Abraham, that promise that God made all the way back right in the book of Genesis, the promise that he made in Genesis chapter three that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head, the promise that he made to Noah, the promise that he made to Abraham, the promise that he made to Isaac and to Jacob, the promises that God made. Paul says those blessings of Abraham would come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Salvation comes through faith, through faith in Christ, faith in Christ doesn't come through your works. Listen, if you think, if you think that you can be saved, justified, forgiven, right with God, because you walked some aisle and said some superstitious little prayer that is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God saves a person, justifies a person when they put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ turning from their sin. You turn from the life that you're living for yourself and you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and it's faith in Christ that saves. It doesn't matter how sincere you think you were when you said that prayer. Listen, I said that prayer a hundred times if I said it once, growing up in bad churches and it didn't ever quote unquote work. The Lord had to transform my heart. I had to be born again. He needed to make me a new creation. My desires needed to be changed. My hopes and dreams needed to be changed. My emotions needed to be changed. My will needed to be changed. My nature needed to be changed. Everything about me needed to be remade by God. It is God who is the source of salvation. It is God who saves. It's God who transforms the center. Put your faith in Him for salvation and follow Him as Lord. Abraham understood that God's Messiah, that God's Savior would come. Abraham understood that and the same law that Adam failed to keep, the same law that Noah failed to keep, the same law that Abraham himself failed to keep would be the same law that that Savior would one day perfectly fulfill. He's done it all. Do you see? He's done it all. We know the story, don't we? Abraham had Isaac. Isaac wasn't perfect. Isaac had Jacob and Esau. Either Jacob nor Esau were perfect. In fact, with each passing generation, it became increasingly clear that the true children of God were not born according to the flesh. They were born according to God. The history of Israel is essentially a thousand-year history of failure to keep the law of God. They would fail in the covenant. God would judge them. They would cry out for mercy and God would deliver them. They would fail to keep the covenant and then God would judge them. They would cry out for mercy and then God would deliver them time and time again. In the wilderness, just like Noah and his family protected in the ark from the flood waters, Moses sent as a deliverer to the people of Israel, protected in a little basket, right? Carried along on the water until the time would come when Moses would used of God deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. From that point forward, one example after another of breaking the covenant of God. What does this tell us? One, it tells us the salvation is impossible apart from a perfect fulfillment of God's law. It's impossible apart from a perfect fulfillment of God's law. That law, secondly, it tells us that law serves to reveal your sin, my sin. If you hold your life up under the searing spotlight of that law, all you're going to see is sin, sinful thoughts, sinful words, sinful deeds. You are a filth bucket of sin. Now you need to acknowledge it. You need to admit that, confess that before God. Third, the law condemns you in order that you might turn in faith to the promise, turn in faith to Christ. Galatians chapter three, is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law, but the scripture has confined all under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who walk in Isle and say a prayer, might be given to those who take mass every week, faithful Catholic. No, might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were under guard by the law, kept for the faith, which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ so that you and I might be justified by faith. After faith comes, we're no longer under a tutor. It's tragic. Most of Israel, most of the rest of the world, and billions upon billions, no exaggeration today, will never turn to faith in Christ. When the fullness of time had come, Paul says, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you're a son, then you're an heir of God through Christ. God established his new covenant, a covenant of grace, not a covenant of works, but a covenant of grace. He did that in Ezekiel 36. Listen, God says, I'm going to sprinkle clean water on you. You shall be clean. I will cleanse you, God says, from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I, God says, will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. God promises that, right? That's the new covenant. That's God's saving covenant of grace. Why is it grace? Because it has nothing to do with your works. Now he says there, you're going to keep his judgments and do them. Well, how can you say God has nothing to do with my works? Because God does those works in you. Notice it says, I will put my spirit within you and I, God says, will cause you to walk in my statutes. Now you have to ask yourself the question, if you're not walking in his statutes, are you under the covenant? No, this is a covenant of grace. God ensures that this is what's going to happen and it is purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ's only son. He says, I will cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I will be your God and I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. We started off the morning talking about the glory of a true church. What is glorious about a true church? It's made up of these people. It's purchased by the blood of the Son first and foremost. The glory of a true church is the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself and died for her. Those that are a part of the new covenant, those who are part of the church, or those who have been redeemed, those who have been blood bought, those who have been born again, those that have been made new creations, those that have been regenerated. When a true church is made up of Christ as her head and made up of redeemed, regenerate, born again people, then the worship of a true church is Christ-centric always. It's all about Christ, all about God. God-centered, not man-centered. When a true church seeks to worship the Lord, they preach Christ. They don't preach man's opinions. They don't preach success, how to diaper your baby. They don't talk about that stuff. The worship of Christ is on his terms. A true church because they understand they've been blood bought based on the promises of God from eternity past and now that promise revealed in his church by the blood of Jesus Christ. A true church preserves the purity and holiness of the church through the proper practice of church discipline, through preaching the gospel, making sure that people are genuinely saved. And a true church, if they have that treasure given to them, a true church is going to preach Christ to a lost world. If they don't, they're not a true church. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ honors, exalts, adores, worships, and serves the Lord. And we do that by the grace of Almighty God. Listen, it has nothing to do with your works, amen. Praise God. It has all been done in Christ and purchased by our, by his blood for our good and for his glory. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, so much that could be said. We could walk through this story and will Lord for, for years for eternity will be in your word, learning of you, searching all the wisdom and knowledge of God. We love you Lord and we thank you for this glorious testimony of your grace and goodness to us and providing a promise, providing the seed who would redeem his people from their sin, save to himself, his treasured possession and seat them in the heavenlies. We love you Lord. We thank you for your grace. We thank you Lord that although we were born under the law, sinners and Adam, we praise you and thank you for your provision of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us not take it for granted, but I pray that every single person here would be turned from themselves, from their sin, turned from living life for themselves to live for the one who died and gave himself for them. I pray Lord they would turn to Christ by faith, repenting of their sin, believing in him, trusting in him and trusting themselves to him. You would forgive them of their sin, Lord, save them for your glory, for your everlasting worship. And we praise you and thank you for the truth of the gospel. And I pray Lord that your gospel would run swiftly and be glorified and that you Lord would receive the full reward of your suffering. We praise you and thank you for your glorious sacrifice on our behalf. We trust you. We entrust ourselves to you. Thank you Lord in Jesus' name. Amen.